


Just 22 Days

by K1zna



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, One Shot, Suicide Attempt, The Adventure Zone Spoilers, aka really fuckin bad headcanons that will probably end up being totally disproved in canon, but i can have fun. let me live, like. huge fuckin spoilers my guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-08 16:16:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8851630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K1zna/pseuds/K1zna
Summary: Neverwinter was a 10 day's ride from Raven's Roost. The Continental Craftsmen Showcase lasted 2 days. The journey back to Raven's Roost would be 10 more days.Just 22 days. That's all it was. And that was all it took.





	

**Author's Note:**

> 2/23/17: turns out i was right and all of this was just proved to be TOTALLY not what happened lmao  
> i'm gonna leave this up still ofc bc i still think this is how magnus reacted to raven's roost's destruction but just,, like,, disregard the whole red robe part i guess?? like Literally Everything i headcanoned abt them was Wrong so. Welp

Magnus didn't hear about it until 8 days after it happened.

He had just arrived in Neverwinter, exploring the town in the hours preceding the competition. He met up with fellow craftsmen, shared tales of carpentry, bragged about his creation. He ran around the city like an excited child, finding every dog he could possibly lay his hands on to give them the petting of a lifetime. He wished Julia were with him to share in the bubbling excitement that he felt here. It was all so overwhelming to him that when the messenger rode into town, Magnus didn't notice the panicked air about him, even when he began shouting, furiously waving a piece of parchment in the air. Amidst a group of other interested townsfolk, Magnus came over to hear the news. Certainly it was something fantastic!

"Raven's Roost has been destroyed!"

Magnus stopped where he was. He blinked, dumbfound, denying the words that he just heard. In his excitement, of course Magnus just misheard whatever was said. He watched the messenger again, listening closely to his words.

"There was an attack on the city... 76 people have died, and the rest of the citizens' statuses are unknown. Raven's Roost has been destroyed!" And then Magnus shut down. 

He barely heard the wailing from those who had had loved ones in the city. He was numb to the feeling of being shoved and pushed around as people flocked to hear the news. His vision of the crowd blurred and swirled wildly. The only thing Magnus could hear was his own thoughts, saying  _this doesn't make sense._  It didn't at all. Raven's Roost was still right there where Magnus left it. Nothing could've happened to the town. They defeated Calen, right? 76 people was just an absurd amount. Maybe he heard it wrong. But the shouts came again and again, each one melting into each other and building up like the magma beneath the crust of a volcano. And then the volcano erupted.

* * *

When Magnus opened his eyes, he was jostling around a bumping wagon, speeding down a path he recognized. He looked down at the reins in his hand, and traced them forward to the galloping horse tugging the end of them. Confused, he began to pull the cart to a stop, before he remembered where he was coming from, and where he was going. At that, he felt the emotions burst again, and Magnus let the horse pull the cart back down the path to Raven's Roost.

The ride was normally 10 days, but Magnus was ignoring sleep for both him and his horse. After about 6 days, they had covered more than three quarters of the distance, but the horse was growing weaker. After 9 days, when the path leading towards the destination was so familiar Magnus could make it there blind, it collapsed. Magnus almost completely ignored it--the most he did was check to make sure it was still alive--and ran down the rest of the way on foot. He burst into Raven's Roost, his home town, expecting to see people bustling around like usual. Surely there were still children playing in the streets. It made perfect sense to Magnus, after all; the excitement must've toyed with him. But he didn't recognize the city he entered. All he could see was grey and red. The town Magnus was presented with was a ghost town. Ashes filled the air, blood pooled on the streets. There was a limb strewn about here and there. It barely mattered to Magnus, because the most prominent thing about this scene was what wasn't there.

Wasn't the Craftsmen Corridor always visible on the horizon from the town's entrance?  _No, no of course not, that's a faulty memory. Maybe you're looking at it from the wrong angle. Maybe there's clouds in the way. Maybe..._ Magnus's mind created a thousand reasons for why the columns were still standing, for why the Hammer and Tongs was still there, for why Steven and Julia were still waiting for him. He was so concentrated on getting to the Craftsmen Corridor that he almost didn't notice when his foot didn't land on solid ground. Quickly, Magnus re-balanced himself, preventing a fall into the abyss below the columns of Raven's Roost.  _How strange, we've always had fences around the edges of the columns._ And Magnus looked up to change his direction and head into the Craftsmen Corridor, and he saw that he was already there. At the edge of a town that no longer existed.

Magnus was silent. He couldn't hear his breathing nor his heartbeat. The world placed mufflers over all his senses again, and everything fell apart once more. Magnus's legs were numb and he barely felt the force of his knees hitting the ground. He couldn't see the furious shivers that shook his entire body. He heard a distant sound, something that he vaguely recognized as screaming and crying. And curiously, almost in a dreamlike state, he came to the realization that he was emitting those noises, and the curtain over his mind was swiftly lifted, allowing everything to come back at full force. Tears spilled from Magnus's eyes to no end. He clasped his hands to the side of his head and squeezed his eyes shut, keeling over into the dirt. He yelled and screamed and cried until his throat was raw, and kept going from that point until his voice fettered out and all was silent once again.

It took Magnus great effort to pick his head up. He wiped his puffy eyes and looked again at the edge of the cliff, where the Craftsmen Corridor once stood. Shakily, Magnus reached out a hand, hoping that maybe this was an illusion, a trick, and that his hand would break the spell and reveal that the columns were there the whole time. But his hand passed through only air. Magnus let it fall back to his side and pushed down another sob. He remained kneeling at the edge for a minute more, thinking of nothing and feeling nothing. What else was there to do? The train of thoughts trying to rationalize the situation had almost come to a complete stop. At what seemed like a last resort, it pushed two final words into the open:  _feather fall_.

Magnus shot up. Of course, of course everyone in Raven's Roost had a feather fall object somewhere, how could he have been so  _stupid_? It was almost an unwritten law to carry a feather fall with you everywhere, even with all the fences. Many loose cattle have gone plummeting off the side of the columns, shrieking the whole way down.  _Was that what it was like for-_ Magnus stopped himself before he started again. He had to look over the side and see if there were any survivors. There had to be, there must be, there  _needs_ to be-

Magnus took a small peek over the edge of the cliff and almost instantly vomited.

There was nothing but carnage, piles of wreckage and carcasses and shrapnel and organs. Dried blood caked broken rubble. Shards of glass stuck out of limbs, some so horribly squished or charred that they were just barely recognizable as parts of bodies. Of  _people_. Magnus pulled himself away from the view as fast as he had glanced at it, trying to suppress further coughs. He felt tears coming to his eyes again and furiously wiped his eyes. Almost forcefully, he shoved himself to his feet, feeling his knees quiver. He almost collapsed again, but just barely steadied himself. Magnus stared at the horizon now visible due to the absence of the columns, forcing his eyes away from what lay just below the view. Now that his mind couldn't deny the fact that Raven's Roost really was gone, it started to cave in and fill with negativity.  _Did they see it coming? Would they have escaped if you were there? How many people down there do you know?_ _Is she one of them?_ _Is she down there, waiting for you?_

Magnus frowned. "No," he coughed out, his throat still scratched from his screams. His breathing began to speed up. He wanted to yell but the mere act of breathing caused his throat to light up in flames. He wanted to run but he had nowhere to go. 

_Is she down there?_

He gripped the sides of his head again and slowly began to shake it back and forth. It kept coming back, again and again asking him that daunting question. Filling him with thoughts of her. Magnus began shaking furiously again. 

_Is she waiting for you?_

"No," he whispered coarsely, feeling the burn tear his throat up once more. He inched towards to the edge of the cliff. "She couldn't have survived." His voice broke under the weight of the searing feeling that surged forth when he spoke.

_Is she one of the bodies?_

He was closer to the pitfall now. "She won't be waiting for me," he continued. The pain snaked up from his collarbones to his mouth, igniting everything. His toes hung over the edge, his eyes just barely glimpsing the carnage. He felt the nausea rise up again and clasped his hands over his mouth.

_Is she one of them?_

Magnus squeezed his eyes shut. He had to make an effort to stop himself from falling off, but the slightest breeze would send him over. "She..." Magnus dared to lift his eyelids and look down at what was in front of him. "She...she is..." He began to remember everything about her. He remembered when he had first entered the shop to see her sitting on Steven's desk, laughing over some joke. He remembered the way his heart stopped at the sight of her. He remembered the nights they spent watching the stars, the way she refused to remain silent during the rebellion, how she looked on their wedding day. Magnus didn't realize he was crying again. He lifted up one foot and held it over the edge, staring down into the grey and red mess below.

_She is down there._

Magnus let himself fall. As he plummeted, he heard someone from behind him yell something he couldn't understand. He felt himself suddenly shoot up into the air, and then saw black.

* * *

Magnus's eyelids fluttered as he came to. He blinked his eyes open and groggily sat up. As he awoke, he realized he could hear a nearby conversation taking place.

"...no reason for why he would agree to that." "There's  _plenty_ of reasons! I'm sure he'll at least hear us out." Magnus stood up, wondering where he was. There were demolished buildings and corpses all around him. He was standing near the edge of a cliff, and curiously began to walk over towards it. Just as he reached the pitfall, he suddenly remembered everything. His breathing began to quicken his pace as he stared wildly around at his former home. Just as he felt like he was going to scream again, the voices pulled him out of it. He spun around to find the source, and saw two figures standing a short ways from him with their backs turned to him. The red robes they were wearing obscured any distinguishing features about them, but Magnus could see that one of them had horns poking out from their hood.

"Listen, we didn't come here to add more weight to our group." "But we need all the help we can get, right?" "That's not up for us to decide, that's fo--shit. He's awake." One of the figures had turned around and seen Magnus, who froze in place.  "What? He is?" The figure with horns also spun to face Magnus, who realized that they were a tiefling. They ran up to him gleefully, grabbing him by the hand.

"Oh man, I'm so glad to see that you're awake! You had no idea, I almost had a heart attack when I saw you fallin' off that cliff... man, am I glad that Marlena knows Bigby's Hand!" Magnus stood there for a moment as the tiefling continued talking. Their words started slurring together, and Magnus pulled his hands out of their grasp and stepped back a bit, slightly dazed. The tiefling stopped talking and looked up at Magnus, confused. "Hey buddy, are you ok?" Magnus stared dumbly at them. Suddenly their face lit up. "Oh, I see! You must be pretty confused, you have no idea who we are! I'm sorry, I completely forgot about all of that!" The tiefling pulled off their hood.

"My name is Rowan. How lovely it is to meet you!" Rowan stepped to the side and gestured at the other figure next to them. "And this is Marlena!" As Rowan said that, Marlena pulled off her hood begrudgingly, not looking Magnus in the eye. Magnus could now see clearly that Marlena was dragonborn, with two small horns peeking out the top of her head. Rowan turned and looked at Magnus expectantly. He stared at them for a moment before he blinked and realized that they were waiting for his introduction.

"Oh! Oh yeah, uh, I'm Magnus. Magnus Burnsides." Rowan grinned enthusiastically. 

 "How fantastic to meet you sir!" Their smile died down a bit. "I'm terribly sorry about the conditions we ended up meeting however... you see, we didn't expect there to be anyone else here when we came here." Magnus frowned.

"Uh, why _are_  you guys here?" Marlena stepped forward.

"We are  _supposed_ to be here to survey the wreckage that has taken place at this location, and gather as much intel about it as we can." Marlena side-eyed Rowan. "We are  _not_ here to go around recruiting people to our cause." Magnus started to ask another question, but was interrupted by Rowan.

"Hey, listen, like I said before, we need all the help we can get, right? And besides, maybe he knows information about what happened here!" Rowan looked at Magnus excitedly. "Soo, do ya know anythin' about this town?" Magnus blinked before turning his head away from the pair.

"I... This was.... This was my home," Magnus muttered. Rowan leaned around Magnus to put themself in his view.

"You lived here? Oh man, I'm... I'm sorry." Magnus clenched his fist as his eyes welled up.

"It's... fine." He wiped his face with his sleeve and looked back at the two of them. "What are you guys talking about like... join your cause?  _What_ cause?" Marlena scowled and opened her mouth to begin saying something, but Rowan once again stepped in before anyone could get a word in.

"We're trying to prevent things like this from happening. We're trying to obtain the power to protect people, people like the citizens of this city." Rowan paused to let their words sink in. Magnus mulled over them for a few second while Marlena eyed him curiously, gauging his reaction.

"How... can I help you guys?" Rowan's face split open into a wide smile, while Marlena's eyebrows raised in surprise. Magnus looked down at the ground as he continued. "I lost people I loved in this city... people who were waiting for me, but I never came back." He looked backup at the duo clad in red. "I never want anyone else to have to go through that." Rowan waved their hands around excitedly.

"Oh, oh, that's so great!" They turned to Marlena smugly. "See, I told you that he would wanna help us." Marlena rolled her eyes as she fished around in her bag for something. She produced a stone of farspeech from her bag and turned around to talk into it. Meanwhile, Rowan had taken Magnus's hand again and started talking, speaking pretty quickly.

"I know Marlena said we weren't here to look for new recruits, but I know she's happy to have you on board. We haven't gotten a new member in a while, I'm sure that you'll be allowed on board! I know this all seems kinda sudden, so maybe she'll wanna talk it out with you before just letting you join, but I bet you'd like to talk about it too!" Magnus nodded along with Rowan's words, only really half listening. He glanced over towards the cliff where the Craftsmen Corridor once stood.  _I won't let this happen again Julia_ , he promised silently. He turned back to Rowan, who was starting to quiet down. They noticed his stare and tilted their head quizzically. "What's up? You got a question for me?" Magnus nodded.

"So, you told me who you guys are and what you guys do, but like... who _are_ you guys? As a group, I mean. Are there more of you? How many?" Rowan shrugged.

"We don't really have a name, never came up with one. But people started callin' us 'Red Robes', because of, well..." Rowan pinched their robe. "...you know. As for your other question, there are more of us, yes. I couldn't tell you how many though, I never really see the other guys that much? We all typically stick with our own groups. Ooh, I hope they let you join me and Marlena, that'd be so cool!" As Rowan finished talking, Marlena put her stone of farspeech back into her bag and turned back to face Magnus and Rowan.

"They said they'd like to see you personally, Magnus," Marlena said. "I guess you'll be coming with us, then?" Magnus faltered. He glanced back once more at the cliff, and then turned back around.

"Of course," he said with a smile.

* * *

The small town was bustling as the three walked through. There were peeking faces from every window and door. People were whispering and pointing from the side of the street. The broad-shouldered man in the middle of the triad paid them no mind, nor the child among them. She was looking around excitedly at everything, pointing it all out enthusiastically to the third figure, another man wearing a hat. He looked a little uncomfortable as the three of them walked across the town. He pulled anxiously at his collar, before turning to the one clad in a red robe.

"Hey, are you really, really sure about this? These folks might not like us just kinda... droppin' in on them." The red robed man nodded.

"I understand, they're probably all a little confused and on edge. But this is a place that I know will be safe for you." He stopped walking and turned to face the man and his daughter. "It may be difficult to trust in me, but I'd like to ask you to stay here for at least a little while. We can't go back to where we came from, and maybe you'll eventually be able to call this place home." The man with the hat looked down at his daughter, whose eyes were full of stars as she gasped at every little thing. He smiled softly, and looked up at the red robed man again.

"Sure, I guess we could try that out." The red robe smiled as well. The townsfolk were beginning to grow bold, and one of them, a dark elf woman, approached the trio slowly.

"I'm sorry to... interrupt, but, may I ask, who are you, and why are you in our town?" The red robed man gestured at the two other people with him.

"This is Jack, and this is his daughter, June." Jack waved cautiously, while June waved her hand high in the air with energy. The red robe continued on. "They're looking for a place to stay, since their hometown has become... unsafe." The dark elf woman scratched the back of her head.

"Well, I run an inn, if that's of any use to y'all." Jack nodded.

"That would be fantastic, thank you." The dark elf woman turned to the red robe.

"The three of you are staying?" The red robe shook his head.

"No, no, I just brought them here. I can't stay long at all." The dark elf shrugged.

"Alright then, do you guys, uh, wanna check out where you'll be stayin', then?" Jack and June nodded, and the dark elf began leading them toward a saloon-looking building. The red robe watched them go for a moment, before he suddenly remembered something.

"Wait, Jack, hold on a moment." Jack stopped and watched as the red robe fished around in his bag and pulled out a silver chalice. He handed it to Jack, closing his fingers around it. He tilted his head up and looked Jack in the eyes. "Just in case." He stepped back and waved the two of them off. After they had stepped inside the saloon and the red robe could no longer see them, he began to exit the town. Just as he reached the gate, he was stopped by a shout from behind him.

"Wait!" The red robed man turned around to see a small child staring up at him with wide eyes. "Who are you?" The red robe frowned, thinking about it for a moment, before smiling softly.

"Oh, I'm nobody important," he said as he turned and left the town. "Just a visitor."

 

**Author's Note:**

> i did the twitter name thing for my original characters! :o  
> Marlena was named for Marlena Fo-Faya @manglerfish !!  
> Rowan was named for Rowan ✨ @Electricgale !!


End file.
